What Finnish anti-immigration politicians write about migrants

Migrant Tales insght: This short blog entry below by Tanja Hartonen-Pulkka became quite a sensation in Finnish social media websites when it was published on Sunday and taken down on Monday by Uusi Suomi. Hartonen-Pulkkia is very active in the Mäntyharju town council, where she is a councilwoman for the Perussuomalaiset (PS)* party and a member of the town board. Her blog entry below isn’t atypical of what some anti-immigration politicians write about migrants.

From what Migrant Tales can gather, Hartonen-Pulkka argues that Finland will be taken over by migrants (or non-white Finns), who have no worth in our society because they live off social welfare and are lazy.

Mäntyharju (pop. 6,200) is a small town in Eastern Finland with a miniscule foreign population. A mere 1.9% of the town’s population speak as their mother tongue another language other than Finnish (97.9%) or Swedish (0.2%).

She writes:

Soon Finland won’t look like Finland anymore, or Finns at this rate. At this rate, we’ll become a minority in our own country.

Cultural enrichment (what a term!) is in some people’s opinion a good thing? Oh in order to make Finns more sociable? What’s wrong with our culture anyway? If somebody doesn’t speak or kiss you, that’s how things are.

Now you see Tanja Hartonen-Pulkka’s blog entry on Uusi Suomi…

There’s not enough money and there aren’t any jobs. A recent study showed how first-generation immigrants don’t learn [at school]. [They are] 2 years behind [Finns] and their math skills are below average and finding work and getting a postgraduate education are difficult. If you don’t know anything, and if you don’t get an education, you’re not interested in work either. Or social welfare will help. That also happens to Finns – they mop floors or drive buses (without putting down different professions I myself am by vocation an orderly).

Even if some blame prejudice since they (migrants) aren’t hired. Isn’t a skill [a more] important [factor] than a person’s background when hiring somebody.

…and now you don’t.

There are [many] jobless among our own ethnic (what a word as well) Finnish youths.

Jobs for Finns and for Finnish skills. Our educational system has always been praised. Why is there then such a disconnection between people and education.

* The Finnish name for the Finns Party is the Perussuomalaiset (PS). The English names of the party adopted by the PS, like True Finns or Finns Party, promote in our opinion nativist nationalism and xenophobia. We therefore prefer to use the Finnish name of the party on our postings.

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“From what Migrant Tales can gather, Hartonen-Pulkkia argues that Finland will be taken over by migrants (or non-white Finns), who have no worth in our society because they live off social welfare and are lazy. ”

I read this totally differently. First of all, you made a translation error:

“you’re not interested in work either”

This should read something along the lines as

“the available jobs will be the less interesting ones”

What she says is that immigrants have lower educational achievements, as such their education levels are lower and they are less likely to get employed.

What is radical in her blog? She just tells the truth. Even the second generation immigrants had much lower math scores than the native population.

Also, she is not wrong in thinking that native population might became minority in their own country. In Sweden (which you keep praising) they expect around 80000 asylum seekers this year alone. Annual birth rate in Sweden is around 115000. To me it doesnt look too far fethced to say these levels immigration will end up having swedes as a minority. If anything, Finland should learn that more immigration will lead to even more immigration and eventual death of finnish language and culture.